Cheaper and comfortable low-season travel to Tibet

Like many other people, I have been longing to go to Tibet, but until now I haven’t done it yet, because of the lack of money and the lack of courage. However, I have decided to do it in the next November because one of my friends told me a secret that it is much cheaper if we travel to Tibet in winter.   

As a hot tourist destination popular among both domestic and overseas travelers, Tibet witnesses over 10 millions travelers from home and abroad each year since the operation of Qinghai-Tibet Railway which has greatly improved Tibet’s transport. But 90% of them come to Tibet in summer and autumn which are the peak season of Tibet tourism.

As Tibet has distinct low and peak seasons, the price of Tibet tour varies greatly between the two seasons. Its peak season is generally from April to October and its slow season is from November to March of the next year. 

Optimum weather, school vacations, large conventions and popular events can all contribute to high season at any destination; while unfavorable weather, closed attractions, construction and renovations in progress all contribute to making a certain time of year the off-peak season. But the benefits of a slow season might just outweigh whatever the downsides are.

If we travel to Tibet in the low season, we will almost always get cheaper rates and more personalized service, plus Tibet will be less crowded and safer during offseason travel.

Just imagine that nearly 9 million tourists travel to Tibet in the peak season and that most of them spend their time along the popular route from Lhasa to Everest Base Camp. If we divide those 9 million tourists over the course of a year, that comes out to over 20,000 tourists per day in Tibet. When we want to take a goo picture, we might have to wait at least ten minutes. When we are very hungry and finally find a restaurant in a small town, again we may have to wait at least 30 minutes in a line of hungry people. When we arrive at our favorite monastery, we may find that it is filled with visitors of different colors, and then we may need to line up to enter it. Thus, maybe one third of our traveling time is spent on such waitings.      

 

However, the number of the tourists in Tibet dramatically decreases in winter. My friend told me that he had walked around Jokhang Temple during the winter and not seen a single other tourist. Only thousands of Tibetan pilgrims were there. It was awesome!

In addition, we can save as much as 40% money if traveling to Tibet in winter as we can enjoy a good price in many aspects in the low season, accommodation, food, admission tickets, and air tickets. Generally, one can enjoy discounts as follow.

1) A 50% discount on entrance fee of most tourist sites in Tibet, such as Potala Palace, Namtso Lake, Yamdrok Lake, Gyantse Pelkor Monastery and Tashilunpo Monastery.

2) A 30%-50% discount on hotels.

4) A 30% discount on tourist vehicle.

5) A 20%-50% discount on airticket. 

Therefore, we can enjoy a much cheaper price on our Tibet tour compared with that in summer. We can also explore a spot to our heart’s content as there is no crowd and no limit on the visiting time as that in summer.